One For Sorrow, Two For Joy
by abderian
Summary: Harry Potter's fifth year at Hogwarts doesn't just bring problems for him. Suzy Reynolds is coping with first love, OWLs, and whether Hermione will ever stop making her knit elf hats. Jake Reynolds has left Hogwarts, and is struggling to meet the expectations of his father while following his dreams at the same time. Involves love, friendship and an awful lot of Quidditch.
1. Suzy and Jake

Suzy Reynolds shrugged off her rucksack, sank down into the armchair and buried her head in her hands. She groaned loudly.

"It's not that bad," Angela said exasperatedly, sitting down next to her and rolling her eyes.

"How much homework are they giving us?" said Suzy. "Four essays, three translations, those OWL questions to answer for McGonagall, and that stupid drawing of a Knarl Grubbly-Plank wants us to do." She swung her legs over the armrest and propped up her head on her arm so that her brown curls exploded around her elbow. "I hate OWLs. I wish I was Hermione."

"I don't," said Angela. "Come on, how hard does she work? She took Muggle Studies in third year. She has muggle parents!"

"Why didn't you take Muggle Studies then?" asked Suzy, tilting her head up to look at her best friend. "You'd have been brilliant at it."

"I'd be rubbish; I haven't a clue how a fridge works," retorted Angela. Suzy decided it was best not to ask what the hell a fridge was, and let her head fall back onto her arm.

Suzy and Angela had been best friends since their first year at Hogwarts, now about five years ago. They had bonded over being so lost when they went down to breakfast together that they were unable to find the Great Hall, accidentally forced their way into Filch's supply cupboard and had then become stuck in a trick staircase from which Jake, Suzy's elder brother, and his friends had had to rescue them, all helpless with laughter.

Angela was muggle-born; Suzy's father was a pure-blood, her mother a half-blood. Suzy found Angela's life in the Muggle world endlessly fascinating. She loved going round her house, where Angela introduced her to things like the television and electricity, and muggle stories of witches and wizards. Due to Angela's love of history, both wizarding and muggle, Suzy knew perhaps more about Muggle history than anything Professor Binns had taught them. Suzy had also met Angela's muggle friends, but she could hardly say two words to them; Angela's muggle friends spoke about things like GCSEs and television shows, and spoke about subjects like Art and Drama, which Suzy couldn't help but find funny, the idea that you would go to school to learn to act. It surprised her, the differences between muggle and wizarding worlds. She often wondered about Angela's life before Hogwarts.

Angela, meanwhile, had been equally enthralled with Suzy's home. The large cauldron in the kitchen, the moving pictures around the home, the enchanted iron and washing up brush, the way the mirror had complimented her on her shirt as she went by, and the way that everything popped, whizzed and banged. The toilet that burped loudly had also surprised her, but Suzy and Jake had explained, through giggles, that it was Jake's practical joke, and not a normal wizarding occurance.

Angela had opened her mouth to reply when Hermione burst in through the portrait hole, carrying her bag over her shoulder and a heap of books and scrolls in her other hand. She made a beeline for Suzy and Angela.

"Hi," she said quickly.

"Hermione!" greeted Suzy happily. "We were just talking about you." She smiled sweetly when Hermione's eyes met hers. "Nice things," she said hurriedly.

Hermione shook her head impatiently. With a sinking sensation, Suzy recognised the gleam in Hermione's eyes that only appeared during the build-up to exams, when Hermione would annoy them all by asking why they hadn't started revising yet before showing them all her thick stash of perfectly written notes.

"It's about Umbridge," said Hermione. "Sort of. It's really about Defence Against the Dark Arts." She leant forward, propping her elbows on her knees. "Harry, Ron and I were thinking of starting a Defence group, where people could practice Defence properly. You know how bad Umbridge is as a teacher. So we thought if we started a group, where people could really learn Defence, it would be useful."

"Is this just for OWLs?" asked Angela.

"No," said Hermione. "It's mainly about…well, about…" she seemed unsure whether to continue or not, and her eyebrows knitted together. "It's about practical application of Defensive magic in the real world," she said eventually, having decided. "We'll tell you more about it at the first meeting. I just wondered whether the two of you would be interested."

"Will we have to wear badges?" asked Suzy, raising her head.

Hermione paused. "What?" she said shortly.

"What, it's a fair question," said Suzy defensively. "That elf group you kept banging on about last year, you made badges for that."

"It's called SPEW," snapped Hermione. She got up and swung her bag back onto her shoulder. "And no, I haven't made badges," she said, walking off.

"Hermione! Hey, Hermione!" called Suzy, but Hermione had already walked off to talk to the Creevey brothers.

"Do you want to go then?" asked Angela. "To her defence group?"

Suzy wrinkled her nose. "Dunno. Depends who else is going."

"I might," said Angela casually. "Neville mentioned something to me about it this morning."

Suzy grinned wickedly. "Oh, well, if _Neville_ said it, then it must be _amazing_," she drawled.

Angela grabbed the cushion from behind her head and threw it at Suzy, who, laughing, caught it and hugged it to her chest.

"Anyway, Ang, you joined SPEW. And then made me join SPEW. And then Hermione made me wear the badge, and I had Millicent and Pansy trailing after me making vomit jokes for a month."

"One, shut up about Neville, I don't like him in that way, and two, SPEW wasn't so bad," protest Angela, her face going bright red and shining brightly beside her short blonde hair.

"Oh, of course, I forgot, you like _Jake_ that way," nodded Suzy seriously, and then creased up laughing as Angela grabbed the cushion again and threw it at her again.

Back in their second year, Angela had developed a crush on Suzy's brother, who had been in his fifth year at that time. Suzy hadn't been able to not tell Jake about it, which led to Jake winking and flirting exaggeratedly at Angela whenever they met, making Angela go bright red whenever she saw him. Suzy wasn't quite sure whether Angela had ever forgiven her for that, but then Angela had told everyone in their year (excluding the Slytherins) when Suzy had developed a crush on the new bartender in the Three Broomsticks. She reckoned that made them equal.

Seeing Angela take out the Care of Magical Creatures homework, Suzy joined her, and soon Seamus and Dean, Parvati and Lavender had also joined them, and the small group began using copious amounts of parchment as they attempted, most very badly, to copy the tricky sketch of a Knarl from the textbook.

* * *

Jake Reynolds lay flat on his back on his bed, lazily tossing an old Quaffle up to the ceiling and catching it expertly. The ball thudded rhythmically against his hands. He threw the ball up in the air one last time, before folding his arms back behind his head and closing his eyes, puffing out his cheeks with boredom.

Jake had left Hogwarts only last year. He had thought it would be the best year, what with the Triwizard Tournament and all, but instead it had all ended horribly. He had known Cedric Diggory – had helped discuss Quidditch tactics with him (making sure no members of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, his house, knew) and had liked him.

But then Harry Potter had come out of the maze clutching Cedric's dead body, and Jake couldn't get the image of Cedric's glassy, lifeless eyes out of his mind.

It didn't help that most of his days were spent like this – holed up in his old bedroom, not having anything to do. His best friends, Mike and Sophie, had both got apprentices for jobs as soon as they had left Hogwarts, but Jake didn't have anything. His mother and father kept getting job interviews for him, but Jake hadn't even tried at them.

It was then, as a shaft of sunlight hit his face, that he remembered.

He was halfway off his bed, getting ready to Disapparate, that his bedroom door swung open and his father stood there, blocking the way out, still in his work robes.

"What the hell do you think you're playing at, Jacob?" his father snapped.

Jake rolled his eyes and flopped back onto the bed, staring up at the ceiling. He knew this would be coming.

"Do you know how hard it was to get you that interview?" his father continued, his loud voice echoing around the small bedroom. "I had to pull a few strings to do it, but I thought that it was worth it, as it was a fantastic opportunity. But then I find out that you are such an egotistic, self-centred brat that you don't even bother to turn up to the interview."

Jake didn't move. He began to pick out patterns in the ceiling as he fixedly stared up at it.

"You need to start getting your head screwed on, Jacob. You can't just scrounge off your mother and me for ever. You live here, you start paying your rent."

"I am trying!" Jake burst in, raising his head. "I just-"

"Well, you're doing a shitty job of it!" His father shouted back, and Jake let his head fall back onto his pillow, pressing his lips together.

"Now," said his father. "I've managed to persuade Madam Edgecombe to give you another chance. Your interview is on Saturday. This time you had better go, because otherwise you are destroying my reputation at the office. I will accompany you to make sure you go, do you understand me?"

Jake rolled his eyes at the ceiling.

"Jake!" His father prompted.

"Yes," Jake muttered.

His father left the room, slamming the door behind him.

With his father gone, Jake rolled over to his stomach and closed his eyes. Over the past few months, his father had forced Jake into more job interviews than he could remember. Herbologist for St Mungos, secretary for the Department of Magical Games and Sports, the Improper Use of Magic Office (all his job there would involve would be sending snotty letters to underage school kids), a desk job overseeing security at Gringotts. Jake had failed them all, secretly horrified at the idea of any of those jobs. He didn't want to have to be stuck in some office at the Ministry, where his dad would most likely keep checking up on him to make sure he was actually working.

The reason his father was so angry was that for the latest interview he had set up, in the Department of Magical Transportation for the Floo Regulation Authority, Jake had forgotten to go to. Instead, he had gone out flying with his friends Mike and Sophie and completely forgotten about the interview until it was too late. And now he would actually have to go to that stupid interview again.

Jake hadn't told his mother or father what he really wanted to do. Quidditch. He wanted to train a Quidditch team.

It had been weird, living at home without his sister there. He sorely missed Hogwarts, missed his friends and the Quidditch stadium, the castle itself and even the lessons. More than anything, he missed Suzy. It was easier in the family with her there; without her, the awkwardness between him and his father increased until they were yelling at each other in the kitchen.

Jake rolled over again, picked up the Ouaffle, and began throwing in up in the air once more.


	2. Defences

Suzy had taken a sip of her butterbeer at the wrong moment. It sprayed out across the table as she snorted. Jake patted her helpfully on the back.

"You hit the interviewer on the butt?" asked Suzy, still snorting with laughter.

Jake spread his hands wide and cocked his head, grinning as he saw his sister lean backwards from laughing. "Accidentally. He might have enjoyed it, you never know-"

Suzy rolled her eyes. "Wow, I wonder why you didn't get hired."

The Three Broomsticks was crowded and noisy, thick with the smell of smoke and butterbeer and the laughter of Hogwarts students on the first Hogsmede visit of the year. Jake and Suzy had arranged to meet up together, and Jake was regaling her with stories about his many failed job interviews, while Suzy complained about Umbridge and OWL year in general.

Jake drained the last of his butterbeer and ran his hand self-consciously through his curly hair as he glanced around the pub. He caught sight of Angela nearby, with two other girls from Suzy's year. He waved exuberantly to her, and winked. She turned bright red and looked away.

"Stop teasing her," said Suzy, also looking over.

"What?" cried Jake. "I'm only being friendly."

Suzy kicked him under the table, and Jake yelped in protest, grabbing his ankle. "It wasn't that hard!" Suzy protested, and Jake looked up at her with the expression of a lost puppy.

"Anyway," Suzy said, as Jake sighed loudly, looking around the pub in an attempt for sympathy and looking triumphantly at Suzy as Madam Rosmerta began to walk over. "Didn't you say you had a job interview today?"

Jake leant forwards, looking horrified. At that moment, Madam Rosmerta arrived at their table. "Can I get you anything?" she asked.

Jake swore loudly, making a group of third years glance over to him.

"I'll take that as a no," said Madam Rosmerta snippily and she strode away.

"I am…oh, Merlin," said Jake distractedly, picking up his tie and glancing at his watch. "I'm late already!" He looked around for his jacket.

Suzy grinned, handing it to him. "You idiot," she said fondly.

Jake shuffled his tie on and pecked her on the cheek. "Bye bye," he said, waving. "I'll see you soon, right?"

"Right," said Suzy, watching him go disappointedly. "See you."

Jake waved again, and had almost crossed the pub before Suzy yelled after him. "Hey! Have you got any Sickles?"

He turned round, speading his arms wide and almost hitting Professor McGonagall, who had just entered. "I'm broke, Suze. I hardly have two Knuts." He swung round the door, yelling "Love you!" before he disapparated with a sharp crack.

He was feeling warm from seeing Suzy again after so long and from the Butterbeer, and it had been a long time since he had felt like that, so he was still smiling when he appeared in London. He threw his jacket over his shoulders and was stuffing his arms through the sleeves when he rounded the corner and saw his mother and father standing by the red telephone box, looking horribly out of place in the Muggle street. Jake slowed down.

"Mum, dad," he said slowly. "What are you doing here?"

"Making sure you go to this job interview," said his father. "And I think it's a good thing we came, don't you?"

Jake rolled his eyes, brushing past his father as he opened the door of the telephone box.

"Where have you been, sweetie?" his mother asked as she and her father followed him in. "We've been waiting." She sounded really disappointed.

"I was with Suzy," Jake muttered. He turned around and began dialling. He had used the Ministry of Magic Visitors Entrance a few times over the years; most recently for a number of job interviews and in the past when he, Suzy and his mother used to come to visit his father at work. It had been exciting then, but now, as the box moved down Jake felt claustrophobic. His mother handed him the badge and he pinned it on.

The Atrium was full of people when they arrived. Jake felt his cheeks burn. How must he look, with his parents shadowing him as if he was about twelve years old? And then he became angrier than ever with his father, because of course it was his father's idea to come with him. And then he became so damn angry all he wanted to do was turn back around, get back in the stupid telephone box and Disapparate back to see Suzy. Or grab a Time Turner and go back about three years.

"Well, you know where to go," said his father, nodding towards the lifts.

"Yeah, yeah, I know, right, _thanks_," Jake muttered, throwing his hands in his pockets and walking away.

"Good luck!" his mother called after him. Jake didn't respond.

"Jacob!" his father snapped.

He spun around. "What?" he yelled, straining a little to see his father over the heads of the Ministry workers passing by.

"Your tie."

"What…?" Jake muttered, confused. He looked down, and saw that his tie was off centre.

Jake pulled the tie slowly back into place, and pressed his lips together, trying to avoid the sudden burning behind his eyes. He quickly turned, and joined the large throng into the lift.

It was stupid to feel so panicked, but Jake suddenly felt claustrophobic again. There were so many people in the lift, all pushing and pressing into him and he was nervous enough and suddenly he felt as if he couldn't breathe. He pressed his head against the wall of the lift and wondered Cedric coped with it last year, when he was the Hogwarts Champion and could hardly move five steps without being surrounded by a huge crowd of people.

The lift doors opened and Jake stepped out, quickly making his way along to the Floo Regulation Authority.

"Hi," he said as the door opened. "Madam Edgecoombe, I am so sorry I'm late – my name's Jake Reynolds, and I have an-"

"Yes, I know," Madam Edgecoombe said. She smiled, but it didn't quite meet her eyes. "Come in."

She obviously hadn't forgiven him from missing his interview last week, and Jake seriously doubted whether he would be able to make that good an impression on her. He shrugged as he followed her in.

* * *

"I don't trust you, Hermione."

Suzy grinned as she saw Hermione roll her eyes. "And why not?" she replied snippishly.

"I think you will want to make badges for this," Suzy continued as Parvati finished signing her name and handed the quill to her. "Just like SPEW. You wait, we'll all have badges on telling people to-"

"Do you really think I'd be so stupid to make badges for a secret group?" said Hermione, pushing the parchment with the list of names on it towards Suzy.

"Hermione, Snape gave you an O on your last Potions essay," said Suzy, shaking her head as she bent down to scrawl her name on the list. "How can I think you're stupid? I was just teasing you, okay?"

Hermione handed the quill to Neville, who was behind Suzy in the list.

They were in the Hog's Head, just after Hermione and Harry had given their speeches about the Defence Against the Dark Arts / Anti-Umbridge group they were hoping to form. Suzy and Angela had turned up not expecting many others to come, but the small pub was crowded with students, all of whom were queuing up to sign up for the group, or else talking excitedly about it. It was nice, Suzy decided, waving at Terry Boot who was grinning at her. She wasn't even sure she knew a lot of the people in here, but if Umbridge had done anything at Hogwarts, she had at least brought a large number together, united in hatred of her. There was a friendly feeling.

She was going to pick up her Butterbeer, deciding she might as well risk the dust that had accumulated on the bottle, when she caught sight of Ron and Harry, who were sitting a little way away from Hermione, who were still busily gathering names. Her smile slipped off her face.

What Harry had said, up there, about last year, had been horrible. "_One second away from being murdered…or watching a friend die before your eyes_."

No one spoke about Cedric. Nobody. It was one huge subject that nobody could speak of, because if you spoke about his death, then you were breaking the illusion that everything was okay, and that couldn't happen. You couldn't admit it wasn't okay, because then everything would just break.

And Harry had broken that. He'd said about Cedric, and he'd said that Cedric was dead.

Suzy hadn't even known Cedric. She knew him from the Quidditch team, and obviously as the Hogwarts champion, but had never said one word to him. But his death had shaken her up. She remembered sitting with Jake by the lake after the Third Task, after Harry had come back clutching Cedric's corpse, both of them shaking and shocked, both of them crying.

And looking at Harry, she couldn't help but wonder what it had been like for him; especially with all the stuff in the news recently. And what did it mean to him, to see all these people. Signing that sheet to join in the group somehow wasn't just a way to enter a new club. It was a paper that said 'I believe Harry'.

Suzy went over and sat down next to Ron. "It's going well," she said, gesturing around at the pub at large. She caught sight of Angela talking to Neville, and smirked when she caught her eye.

"I didn't think this many people would turn up," said Harry, running his finger around the rim of his bottle.

"Nervous?" sang Suzy, leaning around Ron to grin at him.

Harry shrugged.

"What?" Ron cried, suddenly, his eyes on Hermione. "Bloody hell, that jerk Smith just signed up!"

"Who?" Suzy asked, craning her neck to see.

"Smith, Zacharias Smith!" snapped Ron, pointing out a boy with yellow hair who was signing his name on the parchment. "What's Hermione doing, letting him sign up? We don't want that idiot in the group."

Suzy began to grin as Zacharias Smith looked over to where they were sitting, and Ron stuck his middle finger up at him.

"Bet he won't even turn up to the first meeting," said Ron, sitting back down and folding his arms.

"You mean you hope not," said Suzy. She laughed at the sight of Ron's face. He looked round at her, and his frown deepened.

"What are you laughing at?"

"Nothing," said Suzy, quickly. Ron was still looking at her, though, and she realised that his eyes were a light shade of bright blue. She had never noticed before.

"Nothing," she said again, quickly, turning away from Ron and scanning the pub again, taking a drink to ease her confusion. She realised with a sinking feeling that her cheeks were turning red – she blushed easily, and her whole face could turn bright scarlet.

Suzy said goodbye quickly, realising with a wave of relief that Angela was waiting for her at the door, along with Neville and Terry Boot. She joined them, quickly, brushing her curly hair forwards in an attempt to hide her burning cheeks.

"We're just going to go back to school," explained Angela, as she opened the door and stepped out into the snow. Neville walked with her, their footsteps falling into line with the others. Suzy shook her head as she and Terry trailed behind them.

"Are they together?" asked Terry curiously, nodding towards Angela and Neville.

Suzy wound her scarf round her neck tightly. The wind was even stronger now. "No," she said. "But I think she likes him." She didn't mention that she thought Angela could do a lot better than Neville if she wanted a boyfriend. Angela was tall and thin, with short blonde hair and, although quiet, was, like Suzy, fairly popular, while Neville seemed to spend a lot of his lunchtimes alone and had never quite escaped from the chubby, nervous little boy he had been in their very first year at Hogwarts. "They spent a lot of time together at the Yule Ball last year," explained Suzy.

Terry grimaced. "So I guess our setting up Michael and Angela wasn't exactly a success," he said.

"Depends. I think Ginny and Michael are going out now, so at least they're happy."

Suzy's date for the Yule Ball last year had been Terry Boot. They had been friends since they were about five years old, as their parents knew each other and Jake had been close friends with Sophie, Terry's older sister. Suzy's only real clear memory about her first day at Hogwarts was sitting in the train carriage with a lot of Jake's friends, hunched up nervously in the corner with Terry as they discussed what houses they would be in. She had thought she would we sorted into Ravenclaw, not expecting Gryffindor, so she had been disappointed when she and Terry had not been placed in the same house. Nevertheless, they had continued their friendship undisturbed, until the Yule Ball.

Terry had asked Suzy out, and the whole thing suddenly became very awkward as they had become trapped on the dance floor for one of the slow dances. Terry had tried to hold her, and all Suzy could think of was how big and awkward she felt, especially as Parvati, tall, slim and elegant, had whirled effortlessly past her with a Beauxbatons boy in tow. Suzy had dragged Terry off the dance floor, and they had spent the rest of the night with Antony Goldstein and Mandy Brocklehurst, not wanting to look at each other. She had tended to avoid Terry after that.

There was a silence as both of them remembered the Ball. They were turning back into the pathway that led to Hogwarts when Suzy decided that it had gone on long enough.

"So what do you think about this defence group?" she asked.

Terry shrugged. "Don't know. On one hand I think it's just another one of Hermione's crazy ideas, but on the other I think it's actually pretty good. I mean, Harry can't be a worse teacher than Umbridge, can he?"

"Definitely not," Suzy laughed. She didn't mention how she felt when Harry was talking about what it was like facing You-Know-Who, and Terry didn't either. It had disturbed her, seeing the look in his eyes when remembering Cedric's death, and it seemed like something that shouldn't be gossiped about behind his back. So she steered the conversation towards Umbridge, which kept them laughing back to the castle and throughout dinner, and was the longest conversation she had had with Terry for a long time.

But when she went to bed that night, she wasn't thinking about Terry, or wondering how Jake's job interview had gone, or even thinking about '_one second away from being murdered_.' She was thinking of Ron, and wondering whether he thought she had been laughing at him or not, and hoping desperately that he hadn't.


End file.
